Progressives To Protest Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security Cuts At Obama Headquarters

A progressive activist group is preparing to protest at President Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters, demanding that he refuse to cut what they view as staples of the social safety net.

The protest comes as a response to news that Obama is offering spending cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in an effort to resolve the debt-ceiling crisis that is currently gripping Congress.

Organizing the demonstration is the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which is hoping to send a clear message to the President: his base won't support him if he cuts the entitlements.

It is attempting to gather at least 200,000 signatures on a petition that reads:

President Obama: If you cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits for me, my family, or families like mine, don't ask for a penny of my money or an hour of my time in 2012. I'm going to focus on electing bold progressive candidates who will fight to protect our Democratic legacy.

As of Thursday at noon, the group had gathered over 195,000 pledges, from donors who gave over $17 million and 2.6 million volunteer hours to Obama's campaign in 2008, according to a PCCC press release.

The signatures will be delivered to Obama's headquarters at the Prudential Building at 11 a.m. CST on Friday. But as Lynn Sweet, political correspondent for the Chicago Sun-Times reports, they may not get all the way to anyone's desk. "The Prudential Building is somewhat of a fortress to penetrate--and one needs to get cleared in to get to the actual campaign offices," Sweet writes.

Still, the PCCC hopes the sheer volume of signatures will be enough to bring the President to attention. "If he's running as a Democrat, antagonizing the base like that is a pretty bad strategy," co-founder Adam Green told CNN.

Meanwhile, debt ceiling talks continue between the President and his Republican opponents in Congress, with the president growing increasingly frustrated with their intransigence on the issue.

Comments

[SisterAnn]

07:27 AM on 07/18/2011

What it comes down to is this is a battle between the big businesses like big pharma and the government.

One takes your money as taxes and the other in profits. The middle class are said to have more protections with Democrats in power, but Obama is screwing up that theory.

With Democrats in power you get more from taxes. You get nothing from profits unless you are in the market and even then, it whips the profits away from you every few years.

[Patricia013]

09:04 PM on 07/15/2011

""The Prudential Building is somewhat of a fortress to penetrate--and one needs to get cleared in to get to the actual campaign offices," Sweet writes."

That doesn't make the petition any less effective! Its stupidity to think because it cannot be delivered that it would change anyone's mind one whit! If obama were truly smart he'd come out and talk to the people and explain exactly what he's doing. So far we've heard just whisps of this and than and mostly rumors! By keeping his proposed changes secret he is only harming himself! To go ahead and just change these programs without even taking the pulse of the people is political suicide and if he doesn't know that then he doesn't deserve the job he has!

[quillerm]

09:16 AM on 07/15/2011

The Facts:The AARP, which supports an overhaul of health care but has not endorsed a specific bill, calls the claim of a $500 billion cut to Medicare a "myth."
"None of the health-care reform proposals being considered by Congress would cut Medicare benefits or increase your out-of-pocket costs for Medicare services," the AARP says.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the health-care bill now moving through the House of Representatives would trim $500 billion from Medicare's projected costs over the next 10 years. The bulk of the savings would be generated by reining in the growth of payments to doctors and hospitals and by cutting subsidies to the Medicare Advantage program, which pays private insurers to provide Medicare benefits which are sometimes more generous, the CBO found.

[Patricia013]

09:06 PM on 07/15/2011

I don't know why anyone listens to AARP anymore. I stopped my membership with them years ago. They are heavily into insurance...both auto and health policies. Self-serving to say the least. At this point I know of no independent organization that speaks for seniors!

[abgesq2000]

09:42 PM on 07/15/2011

You do realize you are quoting information discussing the half trillion cuts included in the Affordable Care Act?

[Shaktas Na]

05:12 PM on 07/14/2011

This is a very interesting interesting bit of drama. It doesn't matter what political affiliation you have or religion you practice because if a person with a resistant strain of TB(or whatever is the hot deathly illness of the day) infects you and your family on a crowded plane,train,bus, or restaurant who will you be blaming?

These cuts mean,very simply, that the result will be massive groups of income poor, physically and mentally ill(and unmedicated) people with nothing to lose-wandering about aimlessly in everyone's neighborhoods.

[mosttruthful]

03:23 PM on 07/14/2011

News Flash for the Idiots: If SS and MC aren't addressed no one will have in it a few years.

[cali4856]

09:03 PM on 07/15/2011

That is the BIG LIE Republicans want you and I to believe. You believe the lie, I don't. Raise taxes on the super rich, create some US jobs and SS & Medicare will be fine.

[lakefront liberal]

02:46 PM on 07/14/2011

Sometimes I think progressives can be their own worst enemy. I think that many on the left expected this man to walk on water, and with a wave of his hand, solve all the problems of the nation. Now they're "disappointed" that he's had to compromise to get anything done, even though he's faced intransigent opposition on almost everything he's done while in office.

I understand holding his feet to the fire, and that, like any politician, things won't get done without some protest and friendly pressure, but I've never seen one president so second guessed in my life by those on his "own side." Just like those on the far right seem to live in their idealized world where "only if" they got everything they wanted, things would be perfect, the far left has a tendency to do the same. The only issue is that the far right will still vote for the chosen candidate that will win. The far left will splinter their votes and then be left wondering why their goals never get accomplished in government. We have a tendency of tearing down the people who are generally on our side when they don't do everything we want.

[PalaceOfWisdom]

03:26 PM on 07/14/2011

So many people try to make this argument that I've saved my response for cutting and pasting. Note that the items below have nothing to do with filibusters or other obstruction, but are his own will in action:

said he would close Gitmo in first year - will never happen

clean energy/ energy independence - offshore drilling and more nuclear were not his proposals

end the Iraq war - 50K troops supposedly don't count

begin drawdown in Afghanistan now - troop levels will still be higher in 18 months than when he took office

universal health care - private insurance mandates are not even a step forward, instead strengthening the industry that will block a public option or universal system with every dollar it can spare

transparency in government - meetings were supposed to be on C-Span but everything is secret

bills would be debated for five days before signing them - Patriot Act extension got NO debate and Obamacare also got pushed through

stated that the President could not unilaterally take us to war - Libya

would try terrorists in civilian courts - now going with military tribunals

vowed to bring change to Washington - calls those who want change "sanctimonious"

Again and again he has actively done the opposite of what he campaigned on, and that's without getting into extending tax cuts for the rich, defending the banks above all others, and now gunning for SS and Medicare while increasing military spending on wars he said he'd end.

[jdevans]

03:32 PM on 07/14/2011

I think many on the left expected Obama to do what he promised -- close Guantanamo, end the Bush tax cuts for the rich, get us out of Iraq, etc.

[lakefront liberal]

09:14 PM on 07/14/2011

I'd like for Obama to do the things that you said, but he can't do this alone. It takes cooperation from Congress to do most things. When he wanted to close Guantanamo, congressmen from his own party complained that they didn't want the detainees tried in their state. They wouldn't authorize the money needed to move detainees to other prisons. He compromised on the Bush tax cut, which I was also against, but there was the possibility of a gov't shutdown in a weak recovery. We've spent BILLIONS in Iraq and built the largest embassy ever in Baghdad. You weren't expecting that we'd abandon everything, did you?

People say that he could have stumped more for progressive principles, yet when he talks, the same people say it's all pretty words, but no action. Do progressives want him to advocate more or not? The world is imperfect. Obama is imperfect. When I was in Grant Park on election night, I had a sinking feeling that he'd have to clean up a HUGE mess and not get any appreciation for it, and that people would end up blaming him for things not being better after a disastrous 8 years. He's said things that I didn't like, and I think he could've done more, but I'm also realistic enough to know that not everything would be possible and that sometimes half steps or no steps would be made towards progress. We shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

[brokerallen]

02:43 PM on 07/14/2011

A perfect example of why we need Universal Coverage. Take the insurance companies and their shareholders out of the middle and there is plenty of money to go around.

[Patricia013]

09:10 PM on 07/15/2011

without medicare HMO's seniors would have to go straight medicare and get a supplemental policy to take up where medicare leaves off.....almost like the Ryan plan they'd be required to pay extra for those policies whether they have the money or not!

[abgesq2000]

09:48 PM on 07/15/2011

I believe brokerallen is proposing a medicare for all healthcare system. And CouponCare is nothing like what you outlined. Instead, the government would give you a "voucher" and the senior would have to go out into the private insurance market to get insurance to which they would apply the "voucher" to the premiums. If you have not had the pleasure to price an individual insurance policy, the price would be shocking.

[The political pulse]

12:48 PM on 07/14/2011

These people who don't want Medicare cut are so silly. Under its current form it is already only able to pay 50% of what it costs to administer the program. That is while it also underpays the doctors who treat Medicare patients. The Republican plan of a new Medicare paying for your insurance premium is a far better move. It puts the responsibility of cost control in the hands of doctors and private companies who know how to efficiently provide health care, unlike medicare which just approved fund for endless unneeded tests and procedures. Anyone who thinks government is better at running anything over a private company doesn't see how wasteful government is and how knowledgeable it tends to be

[Dan Schell]

01:31 PM on 07/14/2011

Private companies can be plenty wasteful and inefficient, too. They just aren't using taxpayer money (well, most of the time) to do so.

Government vs. Business is a losing battle for any citizen concerned with their individual rights. Both are hostile to the citizenry in one way or another. One is not "better" than the other.

[Gdebs]

05:03 PM on 07/14/2011

My trust in government is very low but my trust of corporations is almost non-existent.

[abgesq2000]

09:56 PM on 07/15/2011

Oh yeah! Trusting the doctors and private insurance companies to control costs over the past several decades has really worked out so well. I remember having choice of 5 or 6 different insurance companies through employers with 2 or 3 different types of plans by each insurance company. Back then, employees paid a co-pay and the insurance companies picked up the rest. Now, employers offer one insurance company and they offer two plans. Most plans have deductibles that must be paid BEFORE the insurance company pays ONE DIME except for preventative care. A typical family of four pays $6000 in premiums while being responsible for the first $12,800 plus a 10% co-pay after that every single year in exchange for the insurance company paying $1,920 in healthcare costs. But, the good news is that insurance companies are raking in huge profits! And you call that controlling costs.